"Pellegrino’s Position Is Now Under Considerable Scrutiny "

There are certain football writers who when they comment about Saints, you know that their sources are good and one of them has spoken about the current situation at St Mary's

The Telegraph's Jeremy Wilson is well respected in the football media for his incisive and accurate reporting and having started his career at the Daily Echo is not short of contacts close to and within Southampton Football Club, so when he speaks about Saints it is usually accurate.

He has spoken today about the club's transfer issues and disappointment in missing out on Theo Walcott and the difficulty the club have in signing players due to their current predicament.

he lso suggests that the club are close to signing Monaco striker Guido Carillo for around £15 million as well as in the market for a pacy wide man, although there is no mention of a central defender.

But perhaps more interestingly is the comments about the position of Mauricio Pellegrino, Wilson states.

"Pellegrino’s position is now under considerable scrutiny and, while the club hierarchy are sympathetic to the difficulties he faced while Van Dijk was still in the dressing-room and evidently keen to leave, they are concerned by recent results."

"At the start of the season, it was felt that the squad could realistically mirror what Burnley have done by potentially challenging to get into the top six, and certainly competing to finish best of the rest. There is still faith in a wider model and no desire to turn towards a manager who might be perceived more as a quick fix, but the final two weeks of the transfer window are becoming critical."

This is perhaps the first whisper out of St Mary's that the club's board are not happy with Pellegrino and could be seen as a well placed media plant to let the supporters know that the club are aware of the situation and are not happy with it.

The problem for Les Reed and Ralph Krueger is that as Stoke have recently found, when you sack a manager it is not as easy as it looks to replace him, and whilst perhaps Pellegrino might have been sacked on results alone, there has to be a replacement lined up before the club can do so.

If they sacked Pellegrino then his coaching staff would also go, that would leave only goalkeeping coach Dave Watson and Kelvin Davis left to run the team, neither have any experience of running a football club let alone one in the Premier League needing guidance and leadership, even in the Academy sides there is little actual coaching experience at an adult level.

This means Saints are in a very difficult situation and Wilson's comments that the managers position is under scrutiny might be a message to try and placate the supporters that there could be a change in manager if things do not improve, but only when the replacement is lined up.

So whilst not exactly concrete news for Saints fans it is a chink of light that the club is actually considering it's options.

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